Obama’s health care plan – Reimbursing physicians for discussing end of life treatment
How Obama’s health care might affect advance care planning discussions As a hospice palliative care nurse, I was eager to hear about Obama’s health care plan regarding end of life issues. I was naively surprised to read media reports suggesting Obama was going to bring in “death panels” and “push the elderly to early death.” […]
Review of decision making following Hurricane Katrina
Last weekend the New York Times published an excellent article by Sheri Fink about the events that transpired at the Memorial Medical Center in the days following Hurricane Katrina. Sheri researched this story since the hurricane four years ago. As I read the 13,000 word article, I understood more clearly the incredible challenges facing doctors, […]
Family History
I could not resist talking about my great grandmother. “Granny” a.k.a. Katherine MacDonnell lived until she was nearly 102 years old. She was feisty, determined and wonderful. As a teenager I cared for her while I worked in a small “rest home” caring for six other elderly persons. I prepared meals, made beds, did laundry […]
"Unprecedented!"
Over the past few years I have been developing a presentation titled “Unprecedented! We have never died like this!” This is about the changes in the way many of us are dying (by chronic illness), the challenges of death by chronic illness (e.g. difficulty in prognosticating), the declining number of caregivers, and the coming of […]
